


Buried Blades

by roxasthatsastick



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:21:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25159912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roxasthatsastick/pseuds/roxasthatsastick
Summary: Shulk has always found history interesting, poking into little pockets of how things work and why things are. In the end, when Reyn brought up archaeology, he couldn't decide between it or engineering.However, a certain assignment is about to make things a bit more complicated...
Comments: 6
Kudos: 29





	Buried Blades

The window was frosted over, near imperceptible with the white snow behind. The school grounds were covered today, Reyn had complained all morning that classes weren’t canceled.

Shulk only looked out for a moment before shivering. He hated the cold, winter has always left him numb and lonely. (It reminded him of half forgotten nightmares, of lonely snowfields, of alluring yet ominous lights, of a pain in his chest and _betrayal--_ )

Shulk shoveled a bite of his lunch into his mouth, tasting nothing at all.

Across from him, Reyn laughed loudly and Shulk felt some of the chill melt away. “Don’t worry about it! I’ll figure somethin’ out! We still got like… two months right?”

Fiora laughed a little, and turned to Shulk. “So? What're you gonna do for college shulk? Engineering right?”

He nodded. “Yeah. I was looking into physics or ether technology, but for now I'd like to get my degree in something more general.”

Reyn swallowed another bite of his sandwich. “Makes sense, figured as much. Wouldn’t be Shulk unless you were experimenting with somethin’.”

Shulk chuckled awkwardly. “Yeah… Fiora, what about you?”

“Well, I thought about just going into cooking but… I think for now, I'm signing for that and botany.” Fiora said. “I can always drop one if it doesn’t work for me.”

“Ooh!!” Reyn cheered, before he paused. He half whispered to Shulk, “...what’s botany again?”

“Its… something to do with plants right?” Shulk asked Fiora.

“Yeah!” Fiora nodded and leaned forward a bit. “I want to learn about foraging and identifying ingredients in the wild.”

“Huh…” Reyn leaned far back in his chair, then clattered back forward. “I got it!!”

Shulk blinked. “What?”

“If your doin’ stuff in the wild, and Shulk’s gonna do tech… then I should do archaeology!”

Fiora started. “Wha..”

 _Archaeology_ _does sound interesting now he mentions it but…_ “Aren’t you bad at history?” asked Shulk.

“What does history hafta do with archaeology?” Reyn wondered, then shook it off. “Haven’t you heard all the cool stories about the nopon archaeologists?! They’re basically adventurers, you can’t get any better than that!”

Shulk glanced over to Fiora, realizing the same thing she did. _Ah._

He stood up, eyes gleaming. “So, I could go out and find weird artifacts that you could fix up Shulk!! It’d be a win win, right?!”

Shulk’s heart warmed, winter nightmares forgotten. “Sounds pretty good.”

Fiora laughed. “Well, I don’t know. Maybe instead of you going out and finding things, maybe we should all go? I’m sure you wouldn’t make it ten feet without both of us.”

Reyn grinned. “‘Course!”

Shulk smiled back at them both. “Yeah… sounds great.”

**One year later**

_Long ago, the world was nothing more than an endless sea cloaked in a boundless sky, reaching as far as could possibly be imagined._

_Then two great titans came into existence. The Bionis and the Mechonis._

_The titans were locked in a timeless battle; for the two were divided on the true meaning of life._

_The Bionis believed that life existed to nourish the titan, and death was the only meaning their lives could have. The Mechonis thought that life was meant to shape the world, and their choices were what gave the world meaning._

_Eons passed, until the titans’ bodies gave out. The battle continued however, as those who lived on the titans fought in their deities' place._

_One day, as the combatant's strength waned, the Son of the Bionis appeared. He had seen loss everyone had suffered, and resolved to break this endless battle. The Son forged a sword made of pure light and broke the swords of the titans._

...

Professor Ewan walked idly at the front of the class. “He told everyone that from that day onward, this world had no need of gods.” he droned.

Shulk took notes, quietly. None of this was new, of course, but it was still important.

Beside him, Reyn showed no such care. His pencil was bouncing on his notebook, and his eyes hadn’t looked up once since class began.

“In compliance, the two titans laid down their arms, and finally collapsed. The Son of Bionis buried them, and it is from there that we got the land we live on now.” Ewan finished.

Something jabbed his shoulder, and Shulk turned to see Reyn pushing his notebook over. He tapped a bit of text. _‘hey, what am i gonna do???’_

Shulk scribbled back. _‘About what?’_

Reyn pulled it back and started writing again.

Meanwhile, Ewan continued speaking. “This myth is the most common between all the ancient nations and has survived to the modern day. Many historians believe it is the oldest surviving myth overall.”

Reyn frowned as he pushed the note back. _‘my extra credit in archaeology….’_

Shulk suppressed a sigh. _‘I thought your grade was ok in that class?’_

“As such, we will be analyzing it in detail, as it provides the framework of all future storytelling. Many themes and objects present within the creation myth are either used or paralleled to the modern day.” the professor said.

The blond’s head was aching, trying to keep track of both of them. Themes of the creation myth, and parallels...

Reyn grinned sheepishly as he finished writing. _‘yeah but finals are soon and uh’_

Shulk nodded. Of course. _‘What is it anyway?’_ His grade in that class was good enough, and Shulk hadn’t looked into that last extra credit.

“For example, the sword of light is paralleled in descriptions of the titan’s swords elsewhere, likely pointing to light being a symbol of godhood.” Ewan concluded.

Reyn groaned quietly as he wrote. _‘8 pages, choose something in the museum, and archaeology it’_

The world narrowed as he stared at the note. _‘8 pages??’_

Reyn’s face was flat with an empty acceptance. _‘alvis.’_

Shulk sighed, of course. Professor Alvis, indeed. Even if he wasn’t in the class, Shulk was certain the professor would come up. He was… notorious to say the least.

Despite being only a couple years older than Shulk, he somehow both had a PhD and was the head of his department. His syllabus’ were simultaneously unclear and had exactly what you needed to know. So long, of course, as you could decipher what he meant.

Shulk was suddenly grateful he had no need for extra credit. Reyn was stubborn, Shulk would give him that, the problem was the professor was just as stubborn.

 _‘So? What next?’_ Shulk wrote.

 _‘come to the museum with me??’_ Reyn replied immediately. 

Shulk shot Reyn a grin. _‘Sure! Actually I remember hearing about an exhibit on ancient ether technology’_

 _‘NO. no technology, thatll make the paper even worse.’_ Reyn grimaced. _‘maybe some clothes? something easy’_

_‘If you want my help, shouldn’t you stay in my field?’_

Reyn frowned at him. _‘youre right, but i dont like it’_

Shulk’s lips perked up into half a grin as he wrote. _‘Besides, it’ll be fun! We haven’t done anything for a while right?’_

Reyn tried to hold onto his frown, but the grin peaked through as he pushed the paper back. _‘i Guess youre right. maybe well find something easier while were there’_

Shulk smiled, warm, and reached out--

“Shulk!”

His spine shot straight up. “Yes?”

Professor Ewan’s eyes narrowed somewhat, but he continued. “Can you name any pieces of evidence for the creation myth?”

Shulk clamped down on the urge to scratch his head. “The Machina, sir?”

The teacher sighed. “What _about_ the Machina?”

“Well, they’re very long living, so they might have records of early civilization?” answered Shulk. He hadn’t seen any such records, but it seemed logical.

“Well, you might be right, but many Machina records are off limits to the general public.” Ewan coughed and moved on. “Any other answers? Talia, how about you?”

Shulk turned to look who was called on. It was a High Entia girl that looked somewhat familiar. 

“Some of the dig-sites done on the Old Continent have found very interesting things that could be pointing toward new facts about ancient civilization! I’m sure clues about the creation myth are included in that!” Talia finished, a blazing look in her eyes. 

In hindsight, she was probably in his archaeology classes with that much enthusiasm. 

“That…” Ewan sighed. “I’ll give you partial credit, but that still isn’t a full answer. Anyone else?”

 _This was going to be a long class_ , thought Shulk.

  
# general   
  


bluechain  
Hey! Reyn and I going to the museum for an assignment, do you want to come with us? 

* * *

delirium foxglove  
sounds fun!   
but i have an exam soon, sorry 

* * *

bluechain  
Its alright, it was on short notice.  


* * *

delirium foxglove  
maybe soon! there should be a gap after this next exam _(hopefully)_  


* * *

delirium foxglove  
honestly, i barely remember what just sitting around feels like nowadays  


* * *

bluechain  
Let’s hope the next break is soon then!  


* * *

* * *

Reyn looked up from the pamphlet. “To the right, yeah?”

Shulk nodded. “I’m pretty sure. It's been a while since I last went to the museum.”

“What was it last time? More tech stuff?” Reyn asked.

Shulk laughed. “No, swords. Dunban wanted to go, and invited me along.”

“Ahh.” Reyn laughed too. “So what's the new one? It's...some new archaeology thing right?”

Shulk nodded. “It's the mentioned in class, it's all stuff excavated off the Old Continent.”

The two reached the doors of the exhibit. Visible from the entrance, it opened up on an iron shell the size of a truck. A couple windows opened on either side and in front, but Shulk doubted much light would really get in those.

Reyn went and stared up at it. “Whoa look at that thing. It's huge! ...And rusty.”

Shulk looked around the rest of the room. Along one wall were a selection of rusted out black and gold shells of some machine or robot. Shulk couldn’t help but wonder what kind of metal they're made of. 

“I guess that's a...vehicle? It's hard to tell as old as it is.” Shulk replied.

Reyn peered up at it. “Maybe it's a robot torso!”

Shulk looked to the side, at the robotic shells lining the walls. “No, I think these were the robots.”

Next to one of the displays was a to-scale papercraft model of what they thought the full robot looked like. Beside the robot was a little person that was completely dwarfed in scale. It was, Shulk found, also smiling at him. 

Nearby, an even smaller nopon was waving with a delicate paper wing. It took a bit away from the intimidating figure of the dark robots. It was in all likelihood the point, the engineer mused.

Reyn walked over and peered at it. “Wow. Wouldn’t like to find one of those on a dark night.”

Shulk ran an eye over the claw and jaw-like appendages of the model. No. No, Shulk didn’t think he would either. 

_I wonder who might have made these...why they did…_ The Machina perhaps? They looked so advanced for something so old.

“C’mon mate! We’re not gonna find anything good here.” Reyn called from the door. 

Shulk huffed, hiding a laugh. “I thought I told you that if you want my help you should stay in my area.”

“Yeah but--” Reyn cut himself off. “Ooh!! These’ll be way better anyway.”

Shulk walked slowly after him, taking in the other bit and pieces of ancient machinery. By the door was an engine of some sort, half its parts still missing from the passage of time. 

Shulk laughed as soon as he saw what Reyn was looking at in the next room: clothing.

The shirt sat in a glass case, and the piece of cloth clothing was… fabric? “I guess it looks… less manufactured?” Shulk ventured.

“It's also really brown. Reyn said seriously.

Shulk sighed. “Reyn. Write it on something else. There is no possible way you can get eight pages out of this shirt.”

“I could try!” Reyn half-protested.

“Or,” Shulk pointed at the central display, “You could write on some armor. That’s pretty close.”

A huge selection of armor was displayed in this room. Two full sets of what Shulk recognized as High Entia armor, as well as some plain steel armor beside it.

Reyn grinned. “You’re right! It looks way cooler than that shirt anyway.”

“Definitely.” Shulk walked up to the armor sets. “You know, I think there’s some ether tech in some of this armor. It’s pretty crushed looking, but it looks like it might have glowed back then.”

“Huh.” Reyn pointed at another piece of armor but for nopon. “I wonder if there’s anything in that armor. I mean, wouldn’t all that metal make them too heavy to fly..?”

Shulk held his chin, internally calculating. “You know, now that you mention it…”

Reyn looked away and grinned. “They have some weapons too!”

Shulk looked over where Reyn was looking. “Oh really--”

_Red._

_(electricity pumping through his veins, his chest feels so cold)_

Shulk spun on his heel, what--

Across from him, in a low lit corner, was a rust red sword. Or, Shulk reassessed, it was a sword shaped machine. Jutting out from the flat of the blade were a line of small vents. For ether perhaps?

Shulk paced slowly forward, feeling oddly tense. Something about the machine felt off, too familiar.

Stopping in front, he stared at it, trying to puzzle out what it was.

“Shulk, wh--”

The engineer’s eyes narrowed. _There, at the pommel. (Why do I know what a pommel is?)_ Leaning in, Shulk could make out a small S marking that had been scratched onto it.

Shulk had a habit of marking spare parts at home; Dickson also made things from time to time and would take some of Shulk’s if they weren’t clearly marked. It was a habit by now.

The pieces clicked into place like the gears of a clock.

The sword was familiar, _of course it was_. Even though he had never seen it before in his life, Shulk was the one who made it. It had his habits, his fingerprints all over it.

He pulled his eyes to the label. Experts said it was around five thousand years old.

Shulk stared at the sword, the sword he knew he had something to do with, blankly. “But that’s...impossible…” he whispered.

**Author's Note:**

> so i got xenoblade and immediately dumped 100+ hours into it
> 
> i wanted to explore post game, and i also want to write reincarnation fic....so i made this. theres a Lot of au and worldbuilding up in this fic haha
> 
> planning for the _rest_ of the plot is slow going, but i do have a few ideas


End file.
